The present invention relates to a wireless LAN system in which data communication between a wireless access point and a wireless station is made possible by setting the connection method of the wireless station to a method identical with the connection method of the wireless access point, a communication terminal usable in the wireless LAN system, and a communication program.
Nowadays, the so-called wireless LANs, realizing data communication among a plurality of wireless stations or data communication between a wireless station and an external network by use of radio waves, have become widespread.
In the wireless LANs, various communication methods, such as “infrastructure mode” in which each wireless station carries out radio communication via a repeater station and “ad hoc mode” in which wireless stations directly communicate with each other by radio, are employed. Each wireless station, configured to be capable of switching its communication method depending on the purpose, is generally used in the “infrastructure mode”.
In a network employing the “infrastructure mode”, the wireless station becomes capable of accessing a wireless access point by adjusting various settings (connection method, etc.) of its own. The “connection method” system a method of wireless connection which is specified by, for examples a wireless LAN standard (IEEE802.11b, -a, -g, etc.) employed for the wireless connection, a frequency range (the so-called “channel”) employed in the wireless LAN standard, etc.
The above various settings of each wireless station would be completed easily if the wireless station had a user interface of high operability like that of a personal computer (hereinafter abbreviated as “PC”).
However, with wireless stations equipped with a user interface of lower operability compared to that of a PC (e.g. printers providing services via a network), adjusting the settings through the user interface becomes an extremely complex and troublesome task.
To avoid the problem, there exist some wireless stations configured to support “remote setup”. For example, the communication method of the wireless station (first wireless station) is changed to the “ad hoc mode” together with another wireless station (second wireless station) and the settings of the first wireless station are made indirectly from the second wireless station (remote setup) by exchanging data regarding the settings between the wireless stations. Or the wireless station is directly connected to a PC and the settings of the wireless station are made indirectly from the PC by the exchange of data regarding the settings between the wireless station and the PC.
However, even the remote setup described above is still a troublesome task to the user since the user is required to move the wireless stations (after switching the communication method to the “ad hoc mode”) to positions allowing wireless communication or to move the PC to a position allowing the direct connection to the wireless station by a cable.
Especially when a wireless station which has been used in the “infrastructure mode” is employed for the remote setup, the user has to return the communication method of the wireless station from the “ad hoc mode” to the “infrastructure mode” after the remote setup is finished, which makes the task more troublesome.
As described above, in cases of wireless stations equipped with a user interface of lower operability compared to that of a PC (e.g. printers providing services via a network), the adjustment of the settings through the user interface takes time and trouble.
Recently, some techniques for reducing the time and trouble required for the task of setting have been proposed. In a technique, a network device such as a printer functioning as a wireless station is provided with a function as a wireless access point (relay station), and an independent wireless network is established by the function (relay function unit). From another wireless station connected to the wireless station via the wireless network, settings of the wireless station necessary for establishing connection with another wireless network by its wireless station function (terminal function unit) are adjusted indirectly, and then the function of the wireless station as a wireless access point is stopped. An example of such a technique is disclosed in Japanese Patent provisional Publication No. 2003-143156.
By such a technique, the time and trouble necessary for the adjustment of various settings can be reduced for wireless stations that are not equipped with a user interface of high operability.
However, even though the technique mentioned above can reduce the time and trouble necessary for the task (moving the wireless stations after switching the communication method to the “ad hoc mode” to positions allowing wireless communication or moving the PC to a position allowing direct connection to the wireless station by a cable) accompanying the setting, setting operation itself (operations for adjusting the settings) has to be done by the user.
Building up a network by wireless LAN requires not only general settings regarding LAN (wired LAN) but also settings (“connection method”) specific to wireless LAN. Since the wireless LAN settings require a wide range of expertise, even users with technical knowledge of wired LAN can not necessarily adjust the wireless LAN settings with ease. Thus, the adjustment of wireless LAN settings is extremely difficult for users unfamiliar with LAN itself.
As described above, the task of wireless LAN settings is presently a heavy load on the user and it is regarded as a factor blocking the prevalence of wireless LAN. Therefore, techniques capable of reducing the load of the task of wireless LAN settings on the user have been hoped for.